Are scripted plays helping Tua’s early game success?
Of the six games that Tua Tagovailoa has started for the Dolphins this season, Miami has scored a touchdown on the opening series of four of them, driving 80, 85, 75 and 78 yards on those immaculate possessions.
What’s more, the Dolphins churned out 56 yards on their opening possession in one of the other two games (against Buffalo in Week 8), only to miss a field goal.
Only in Week 2 against Buffalo did Tagovailoa and his teammates not drive the ball down the field on their first possession. And he faced a relentless pass rush from the outset of that game, departing with fractured ribs after just four throws.
So that’s five excellent opening drives with Tagovailoa running the offense, including Sunday’s 11-play, 78-yard march against the Jets, a series in which the Dolphins’ quarterback was 6 for 6 for 61 yards.
Which leads to this question: Is the success on the first drive of games partly
a byproduct of those plays being scripted in the days before the game, as fans have suggested?
“You really can only follow the script for so many plays,” tight end Mike Gesicki said. “It’s like the first two or three plays. Then it could be third down, it could be a different part of the field
where you weren’t anticipating being. The script only lasts for so long. That’s why the fans are where they are and our coordinators are where they are.”
So is there scripting for the second and third drives?
“Yeah, there is,” Gesicki said. “There is scripting for the first two drives. But it’s all dependent on [unpredictable factors]. You’ve got a script for the second drive, but you got a turnover and you’re in plus field position, now that changes how you’re going to call the game. There are a lot of things that go into it.
“These defenses are also getting paid a lot of money to play football and these coaches are also getting paid a lot of money to stop us from moving the ball. I know everybody wants to see every drive end in a touchdown, but unfortunately that is not how this always happens.”
THIS AND THAT
The popular web site fivethirtyeight.com gives the Dolphins a 5 percent chance to make the playoffs.
The Dolphins, who have won three in a row to improve to 4-7, can get back to .500 by winning home games against Carolina, the Giants and Jets.
But the Dolphins then close with difficult games at New Orleans, at Tennessee and home to New England.
“We’ve got six games left and say what you want, but I think what we want is still out there,” Gesicki said, declining to elaborate.
When the team was 1-7, “I know everybody else on the outside world wanted us to panic and just wanted us to bury our heads in the sand, but we weren’t going to do that,” defensive lineman Christian Wilkins said. “We just stuck together.”
Said rookie Jaelan Phillips: “The energy in the building is great right now.”
The Dolphins claimed running back Philip Lindsay on waivers from Houston, giving Miami’s struggling running game another veteran option.
Lindsay has averaged
4.6 yards per carry in his career, while rushing for 2680 yards and 18 touchdowns.
Undrafte out of Colorado, Lindsay did his best work for Denver, where he spent the first three years of his career. He ran for 1,037 and 1,011 yards in his first two seasons — averaging 5.4 and 4.5 yards per carry in 31 games and 24 starts those seasons — before dropping to 502 yards and 4.3 per carry in 2020, when he appeared in 11 games and started eight for the Broncos.
He signed with Houston in March but ran just 50 times for 130 yards (2.6 per carry) and was released earlier this week.
Phillips is up to 3.5 sacks after getting one on Sunday. Does he keep track of his sack numbers?
“My mom is the one who keeps track. She’s the one who tells me. I know it’s like 3.5 now or something like that.”
Phillips said he never set a sack goal this season.
“I didn’t want to come in with over lofty expectations and say I need 10plus sacks or else I don’t feel like I’ve succeeded or anything like that,” he said. “I feel like that’s kind of setting myself up to fail because the reality is you can have a lot less numbers and still be productive.”
Phillips is upset with himself over his 15-yard personal foul penalty on a late hit out of bounds against the Jets.
“I know better than that and obviously that won’t happen again,” he said.” It’s not great. Not smart.”